Back from Central America, Rep. Lynch talks illegal immigration

Tuesday

Jul 22, 2014 at 5:10 AMJul 22, 2014 at 10:33 AM

Jessica Trufant The Patriot Ledger @JTrufant_Ledger

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch says stricter human trafficking laws in Central America, a crackdown on migrant smugglers and set international agreements are necessary to limit the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border into the United States.

In a phone interview Monday after returning from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the South Boston Democrat said a number of factors are driving a dramatic increase in the number of boys and girls as young as 10 arriving alone at the southern border.

In recent months, about 80 percent of the children have come from those three Central American countries for economic and safety reasons, authorities say.

“Leaders there are painfully aware of what this means for their relationship to the United States, and there’s some level of embarrassment that unaccompanied children are leaving their countries,” said Lynch, whose district includes part of the South Shore.

Lynch, a senior member of the Subcommittee on National Security, joined a congressional delegation to Central America last week along with representatives from California, Texas, Arizona and Michigan.

The group met with government and immigration officials and visited migrant processing centers to determine the root causes of the surge in illegal immigration. They also met with non-governmental organizations and civilians to assess the security and humanitarian situation.

Lynch said the first ladies of Honduras and El Salvador – two gang-ridden and unstable countries – are working to facilitate the quick return of unaccompanied children in custody of the United States government. For example, the number of flights transporting such children back to their countries has increased to two-per-day.

A well-organized system of coyotes – or human smugglers who charge thousands of dollars to get people the United States – is driving the influx of migrant children. Lynch said coyotes have launched marketing campaigns for their services, which cost upward of $10,000 per child.

“It’s an industry that has grown in all these countries, and it’s a multi-national effort with counterparts in the United States,” Lynch said. “We heard this from every single civilian and government official that we met with: the coyotes are telling people that they will bring you to the United States, and if you’re a child, you can stay legally.”

Lynch said those nations must enhance prosecution of coyotes who are misleading families, as well as strengthen the laws around child abandonment and human trafficking.

“In El Salvador and Honduras, they don’t have a trafficking statute,” Lynch said. “If you’re smuggling coffee or drugs, you’re prosecuted the same way. There’s no enhanced penalty for children.”

Mexico is actually sending more Central American children back to their countries than is the United States, Lynch said.

“Mexico is overwhelmed too. They don’t want to be a transit country,” he said, nothing that Mexico and the United States have a set agreement regarding how migrant Mexican children are handled when they cross the border.

“A Mexican child is given an offer of voluntary return at no cost to the family, and government is notified and the child is returned,” Lynch said. “It’s a much different situation for non-contiguous countries, and it’s a very long process that has resulted in this sense that you are not returned.”